Winged
by End Noesis
Summary: A haven for plot-bunnies, challenge drabbles, random bits, and the like, all involving my favorite characters and couple [Y/S].
1. Eternity

"I can do fine without help," the angel-child exclaimed, arms flailing around to keep unwanted assistance away.

"Rude much," the cub said, yawning. "I like my paws, they are good paws." One by one, padded digits stretched out and exposed their sharp claws. Cerberus admired the perfect curvature and pointed tip. "What didya end up with?"

Yue looked at himself in the mirrored wall. "Other than my good looks? Nothing."

Derisive scoff, followed by a tackle. "Play with me!"

He pushed aside the golden mass of fur. "I ended up with a bratty brother."

The lion cub simpered. "And a forever grumpy face."

In the mirrored hallway, an infinity of grumpy faces looked back at him to confirm his brother's comment.

Behind him, Cerberus gave him a pair of furry bunny ears.

It was going to be a long eternity.


	2. Honesty

Sakura paced around in the bedroom, contemplating her strange teenage thoughts. She groaned, sighed, hummed cheerfully, and finally 'aha!-ed'.

She scurried over to him, beaming over him as he read Franz Kafka's 'Metamorphosis.' "As your Mistress, I can ask anything of you, right?"

The moon guardian turned the page without gazing up at his excited mistress. "Within reason."

"Do you find me pretty?"

Yue gulped and sweatdropped simultaneously. He would have fallen over if he was not seated cross-legged. He had expected something less trivial, or perhaps more outlandish. A bunny outfit for him to wear, to be her prom date, to be her prom date in a bunny outfit. Anything but a petty question to cater to her tiny, growing vanity.

A few feet away, he could hear Cerberus having a coughing fit. His plush animal ears weren't as stuffed with cotton as he'd anticipated.

"Well?" she asked.

Gently, he closed the book and set it down next to him. The sun guardian had stopped coughing, now curiously sipping fruit juice from one of those silly straws he favored and waiting for his response.

"Yes," Yue placidly answered. "Your other friends can confirm it."

Sakura grinned. "I know, but you would never lie to me."

A subtle color of rose tinged his cheek but faded before anyone could claim he was blushing. "You could grow your hair out." He was reading again, and missed the perplexed look that overcame her usually sweet expression.

"You could cut yours!" she spat back and stormed out.

Cerberus fluttered over, finding a perfect seat on page 127. "Your tactfulness never ceases to amaze me."

"Neither does she." He skipped to page 128, losing interest in Gregor's social and physical transformation.

Real life was far more riveting.


	3. Dolls

They exchanged giggles suspiciously, eyeing me in between whispers. The dark-haired doll uttered encouragements into Mistress' ear. She blushed in response.

A gentle push sent her in my direction, each step more hesitant than its predecessor.

"Yue?" She bit her lip, blanching the rose out of her cheeks. Was I as frightening as Keroberos made me out to be in his poor impersonations?

"Hmm," I acknowledged my name, avoiding inflection and follow-up inquiries.

She pressed on, "You are very handsome… and _tall_…"

I remained expressionless.

She took this as invitation to continue, "I was wondering- could we dress you up?"


	4. Windy

-Sya-

Love is in the air, gusting through the pathways my feet accustom to walking on, carrying words along with the pollens of the springtime flowers. Breezes whisper the cherry blossoms will be especially exquisite this year. They carry her sweet fragrance, letting me know she'll be arriving to meet me, seconds before she wraps her hands around my eyes. "Ey up, mate! Guess who?" she asks in a bad accent, mimicking our magical acquaintances from England. Her hair ribbon flutters against my cheek. I stand still, savoring Windy school days…

-Yue-

…blend and bleed together like water-paints on a blank canvas, filling in the emptiness with multiple meanings to be misinterpreted and reinterpreted by passers-by. Only she knows me best, mentally noting every dislike, every like, and even the neutralities; they all matter somehow. I'm mastered in the absolute. The moon would yield to a star; it is in its nature. The air currents quicken around, closing in from the vicinity. I'm bound momentarily in an embrace that speaks, "It's all right to love her. I won't tell." Outwardly, I admit nothing. It is only Wind.

-Sak-

Words flow back, displaced dusts of broken conversations; lexical games of you and me,

I lack the phrases, the anagrams to reply suitably, coveting the eloquence of Windy.


	5. Matched

It was half past nine. The girl waited patiently for her best friend, a certain kaijuu notorious for tardiness. If possible, she'd bet her hefty inheritance on two facts about Sakura Kinomoto: her ability to save the world and secondly, to be late. Always.

"So we meet again, Daidouji," the refined British tone belonged to none other than the dark-blue haired sorcerer. It was a disappointment.

Tomoyo pushed a dark lock behind her ear, where a silver earring with deep sapphire stones glinted. "So you're the one that's late this time, hmm?"

Eriol beamed at her, retrieving a silver pocket watch from a pocket. Its amethysts winked. Watch and earrings shared similar markings etched into the metal, gifts falsely given to one another by a scheming Kinomoto or Li. The victims played along to spare feelings and secondly, accepting the exquisite, lovely pieces for what they were: tokens of friendship, nothing more. "Syaoran gave me cryptic instructions, so as not to arise any suspicions. I've been standing on the wrong side of the street for twenty minutes."

"That still makes you ten minutes late." She exhaled deeply, the soft waves of dark hair framing her porcelain pale face shifted slightly. "Life would be so much easier if we liked each other."

"I'm hurt. I simply adore you," Eriol teased.

"You know what I mean."

"If we let them keep this up, there's going to be a date with you in a white dress and me waiting in a tux at a church."

"They're not above tricking us into marriage. Sakura knows my ring-size, and you're about Syaoran's height and build, he can easily find you some nice groom's wear."

"You'd make a beautiful blushing bride."

An exaggerated bat of her long, thick eyelashes and a flash of mischievous, clever violet eyes. "Only if I'm wearing my own threads."

"I'll give my best-man the memo to pass along to your maid-of-honor."

"Laugh now while we still can," Tomoyo said.

"We should just tell them the truth."

"She doesn't get it, Eriol. As much as I've insinuated my true feelings, the girl is in denial."

A text sound on his phone distracted him momentarily. He quickly typed a response and snapped the device shut. "Kaho says hi, and to take a minimum of four cheesy pictures to add to our future wedding album."

"Only if we have matching wedding dresses."

They shared a short-lived laugh, before tinkling with their respective friendship tokens again. Bouts of awkward silence would be nonexistent in the presence of Sakura and Syaoran, as they egged on the non-couple into close quarters and romantic situations that went nowhere.

Eriol asked, "What should we do on this date? Movies, dinner, hand-holding under the stars…?"

Tomoyo scrunched up her face.

"Laser tag?"

A smile mirrored by another.

They were most at ease as rivals.

Playing lovers was a fairytale with no ever afters.


	6. Death

The woman was pale, morbidly so, an appropriate description. Around her neck an over-sized ankh reflected sunshine on its silver face.

"This is for you," she said and handed over a card. 'The Death' imprinted on its front in a similar fashion as the Sakura Cards. It's backing was unfamiliar, the remains of stardust on a backdrop of indigo. It was how the accomplished cardcaptor and young sorceress imagined the end of the universe.

"From Clow?" Sakura asked.

The woman smiled, lowering her sunglasses on her nose bridge to meet her eye-to-eye. Her eyes were dark, abysmal, pretty. Pools of tar in which life drowned. "From me to you. Will you write your name on it?"

"How do you know to trust me - a stranger?"

"Because fifty-three other forces, including my brother's alter form, have already. I merely desire to join the company for my safekeeping."

Puzzled, Sakura only stared emptily into the card's backing, not wanting to face the power she would wield over all that lived once she signed its acceptance. "It's funny."

"What is?" Death inquired.

"I never thought meeting you like this. Thought I'd be angry at you for taking my mother."

The young woman's eery smile faded. "You can be angry, many are, spending their lives cursing my nameday. To them death is always early, never late."

"Are you early today?"

"No, love, today I'm just in time."

The card mistress laughed. "Punctuality has never been my strength."

"And I've never cared for finality, my own especially, even in voluntary retirement," Death admitted. "Some jobs, you're born into. Cosmic fate, bloodlines. A high cost of living."

"It isn't fair."

"In life you gotta play the cards you've been dealt." Death embraced her. "Even the one in your hand."

Six letters are delineated in black ink, in brave permanence:

_ S-A-K-U-R-A  
_

* * *

**A/N:** Death is from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, and is my favorite Endless. One of her brothers is Dream. I've considered a crossover, but for now bits in here will do.


	7. Heart I

_"The heart wants,"_ the voice said. It was honeydew, if it had a flavor. It was Indian silk, it if it could materialize. It was tarnished gold and snowflaked obsidian, if it was anything.

Its touch was… it was… it was… flight. … feather-frilled winged glory.

_"The heart leads."_

Then they all woke up.

* * *

Syaoran opened his eyes to the bright morning flooding his sight. His head throbbed. His hands to his side, he clutched the grass blades and sift the dark brown dirt. _Where am I?_ A white figure stood over him, as white as the morning sun. Its smug face with those silver-violet eyes were familiar. _As white as the moon._

"Syaoran Li?" Yue asked. "So it is you." He stood statuesque, beyond the effort of aiding him up from his bizarre but equally embarrassing position.

"Yue, what are you doing here?" He sat up. Yue motioned to the house with a slender arm, whose backyard they occupied. _Kinomoto?_

The moon guardian remained unfazed. "I was wondering the same."

"I'm back in Tomoeda?" He remembered those days in Japan in which he had fought alongside Sakura Kinomoto, only to ensure her ownership of the Clow Cards. He soon found himself risking more than cards for her.

He would have given her anything: life, power, his heart… had he not gone back home to Hong Kong. Fear of relinquishing his everything made him leave. The chasm between them seemed to deepen and widen with each year spent apart. The geography did not change, but he was afraid her heart did.

"No shit," a rose bush said to his right. It shook itself of loose petals and old leaves as Ruby Moon crawled out, twigs and roses entangled in her fuchsia mane. She slapped the dust from her pajamas, a simple pink tank top and pair of shorts with small yellow crescent moons.

Yue approached her, pulled out a dead rose from her hair. She slapped his hand away, cringing at his touch. "You look like you had a rough night," he mocked. The dead rose disintegrated between long pale fingers.

"Your face looks like it had a rough night." Ruby Moon stuck out her tongue and crossed her arms. "It's cold out here! Where are my slippers?"

Syaoran stood up. He too wore his pajamas, a modest pair of green thick cotton pants and sweatshirt. "Yue, Ruby Moon, is there a reason why you brought me here? Is Sakura in trouble?" He looked to her window, hoping for her sweet face to be there, smiling with all of her heart, but the curtains were drawn close.

The moon guardians turned to each other, with a bewildered but very annoyed look to their faces. Ruby Moon was not the type of moon guardian to remain quiet for long. "And why would I leave beautiful England to go to Hong Kong to bring some brat to Japan? You think I would show up at Toya's house looking like this? I have plenty of good lingerie to not waste –"

"What Ruby Moon meant to say," Yue interrupted, "is that we, too, do not know how we ended up here. Yukito seems confused just as much."

"Oh."

"Kids!" a voice from inside the house was heard, then the sound of a door lock unlatching and knob turning slowly. Before he has a chance to fully react, Fujitaka Kinomoto tall frame filled the doorway. Syaoran mouth remains open in surprise as Mr. Kinomoto beamed at him.

"Just as I thought, I knew I heard you three out here. Are you, kids, hungry? I made breakfast for Sakura and Toya, but they must have left really early this morning for work. Can't let a good Sunday breakfast go to waste."

"Hi, Mr. Kinomoto!" Ruby Moon said as Nakuru. "And we'd love to!" She grabbed the suddenly conscious Yukito, still groggy and in the most ridiculous pajamas of the three, a plaid red and yellow with a bunny head on the front of the long sleeve shirt. "You, too, brat!" Syaoran marched behind them into the Kinomoto household.

"I didn't know you guys still had slumber parties at your age," Fujitaka said, examining the attire of his guests, now sitting at his kitchen table.

Nakuru spoke through a mouthful of fluffy pancakes and spiced sausage patties. "Neither did we."

Yukito pinched her leg underneath the table. She kicked him in return.

"We were up all night, because it's Nakuru's birthday today. She wanted a pajama theme, a tradition she started since she was five. Nakuru, tell Mr. Kinomoto how much fun we had." Nakuru eating continued as graceful as a pig and as she was eloquent just as much. Yuki pinched her leg again. "Remember?"

She smiled. "We had fun. Lots. Best birthday ever." She filled her plate slimy from a thick layer of syrup with a pile of hash browns, generously peppered scrambled eggs, and poured red ketchup over it until her plate become a violent mess of red. "Do you have any sour cream?"

Syaoran interrupted, "Mr. Kinomoto, did Sakura say when she'd be back?"

"No, neither did Toya. We usually write our day's activities on that board over there. They must've forgotten. I'd expect this from Sakura, but not Toya…" A white board occupied an empty wall section of the kitchen, where on it Toya frazzled penmanship appeared to note his weekly schedule and Sakura's more feminine one filled it with a quick snippet of her life.

Sakura's writing reminded him of the letters she had sent him in the years past. Even her writing was beautiful, with its careful delineation of "Li" and the soft curvature of the "S" in his name, which swirled at its ends. For hours, he would examine her phrases, the care she took to formulate them to show how much he meant to her. It took him days or weeks when he was at his worse, to reply in an equally carefully crafted letter. The most drafts he wrote was eleven for the letter in which he wrote, "I love you, Sakura Kinomoto. Life is only interesting, only beautiful because it has you. One day I will return to make you mine forever, to make you my life."

The sealed, stamped envelope collected dust in a desk drawer.

_They're only letters, old words between childhood friends…_

Syaoran's sight went to the doodles of a lion cub with crudely drawn wings and "cake" in a third handwriting style on the lower right corner needed no explanation.

Back at the table, where he suddenly found himself back in, Nakuru was speaking her usual nonsense while Yukito and Sakura's father listened. "I hope he comes back soon. He promised me to take me out. Mr. Kinomoto, we're practically family now. I should start calling you my dear father-in-law!"

Syaoran glanced at the board again, as if to take in her writing again, every letter created by a hand that welded unimaginable power. _'Toya- home. Sakura – home.' _He could feel his heart thumping hard against its bloody walls.

_Where are you?_

* * *

**A/N:** This was part of a 5-part short piece called 'Winged Heart.' I deleted it months back, because I felt it could've been better. I might as well upload it here, instead of letting it sit in my hard drive._  
_


	8. Future

I knew it was only a matter of time until I lost her to him. Kero inquired if I held any regrets, and I replied with a solid 'No.' I didn't put up a fight, because it was always him.

My heart was too guarded to let her in as easily as she welcomed me into hers. She deserved more, to be loved without doubts a life as long as mine had placed indefinitely.

Syaoran loved her truly, and who else would be a better match than someone who'd understood her power, who would defend her with the same dedication as her guardians, and who was simply human? _Human._ Centuries of living hardened me, driven the last speck of recognizable humanity away.

She had reclaimed what she could back in the years we've lived together, but my fragile humanity always hung on a thin thread that would snap at any moment.

All I had were memories of us.

The first kiss we shared.

The first night we shared the same bed.

The day she said she loved me.

The many days after in which I replied that I did, too.

. O .

The boy was at most ten years of age, with a disheveled head of light brown hair and icy blue eyes that were unmistakably cat-like, as their pupils remained thin slits to keep out the superfluous daylight. He had been watching me and spoke first. "You're almost exactly how mom said you'd be like. I thought you'd be a smidge taller."

"Who are you?" I asked.

The boy chuckled. "I apologize, I should have introduced myself first… or _should I?_ All you need to know is that I'm a visitor from the future. I'm here to make sure things don't change."

"Why would they change?"

"I have an answer. Mom wrote it down for me." He searched in his pockets, finally producing a folded piece of paper with cursive writing in dark blue ink_. "Time heals all wounds."_

"That's hardly riveting or convincing."

"You will have your happy ending, and yes, I am proof of that." He smiled a lion-like grin. "Go ahead and ask me."

"Are you… are you our son?"

"We're related, yes."

I could only think of one possibility. "Sakura, you and I?"

"It's not that simple."

"What's the point of asking if the answers are vague?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders. "Have you seen my _uncle_?"

Another possibility I didn't voice, for he wasn't going to give me a 'yes' or 'no' answer. The future was more complicated than it should be.

.O.

"If I didn't have your blessing, I wouldn't be here," Sakura said.

"I can't stop your happiness for my own selfishness."

The skirts of the wedding dress moved when she twirled to meet my gaze. "I was happy with _you_."

"How could you be happy with only half?"

"Because it was mine, completely."

I gave her the sapphire of my armor, remodeled and crafted into a brooch with a winged setting. I placed it on the silver belt on the dress. _Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue…_

I ignored the saddened expression on her face, unable to look at her directly. "Syaoran's waiting."

"If I wasn't expecting his child, would we still be doing this?"

"It doesn't matter anymore."

It was a lie. It was everything.

.O.

Yukito looked up at the mirrored ceiling of the church, where his gaze met me from the other world. He silently mouthed, "_Do you want to leave?"_

I shook my head. The only way I could let her go was to watch her recite her vows to the man I could have been in a different life.

In this one, my heart belonged to the future, where someone else waited for me.

Time would be kind.

He rewarded patience.


	9. Heart II

"I know you…" A small voice, tinged with an English accent.

Her eyelids opened and violet eyes focused on a small cat-like creature with four little feet planted on top of her stomach. Its bright eyes were on her, expecting a confirmation of the speaker's statement. Realization came at once and she shot up with the same enthusiasm shown when sensing filmable adventures. Tomoyo scooped the little guardian and held him in her hands to her cheek in the kind of hug she gave to Kero, who'd happily reciprocate it with his small arms stretched across her cheek.

"Spinel Sun! I'm Tomoyo Daidouji. Oohh are you back in town with Eriol and Ruby Moon?"

Spinel firmly extended his front paws to push her face away to a distance of comfort. "Ms. Daidouji, we're in Hong Kong. You woke up in a field in your nightgown with a sun guardian on your lap. How you manage to sound so unfazed is beyond me."

"You can call me Tomoyo, if I can call you Suppi." She placed him next to her, and pulled her knees to her chest, hugging them instead. "How do I know I'm not dreaming, Suppi? I don't have my video recorder with me, and that's weirder than being here with you."

"Don't call me Suppi. That permission has not been granted and shall not. It's the name given to me by the enemy."

"I'm sorry. I've heard your sister and Kero call you that."

"Precisely." The sun guardian hovered in front of her and landed in her extended palm, which invited his company. Spinel's left front paw positioned on the fleshy part of her open hand. On one evening a year ago, her best friend called it the Mount of Venus and her particularly puffy one meant she feared commitment. The second meaning was promiscuity over which they laughed at Tomoyo's Venus-blessed hand and Sakura's palmistry skills. "You are forgiven if I am as well."

"For what?" she asked. Her response was a prick from a sharp claw on the Venus mount, suddenly feeling less blessed and eliciting a yelp from her. "Okay, I'm awake." No blood was drawn so she forgave and forgot.

"I woke up before you and did some exploration on my own. We are close to the Li residence, and I'm positive we're trespassing on their extended property."

"Syaoran?"

The cat turned his head in a 'no.' "The other one, annoying but kind of cute?"

Tomoyo smiled. "Meiling?" She was her second best friend, acquired through the years they spent trailing Sakura and Syaoran. Their respective unrequited loves, bringing them closer and to an understanding those two could not ever comprehend. She never thought of Meiling as a romantic possibility, but she could not deny the girl's beauty, from the ruby-red eyes, whose color was closer to blood than the stone, pin-straight dark hair held on either side of her face, to the stubbornness to push herself even if it meant risking her life for Syaoran. Meiling was too self-sacrificing to not love, even if only as a friend.

Spinel's head cocked. "Ah, yes. _That one_. Although I suspect Syaoran's home is not too far off…"

"It could be either's, so how are you so sure?"

"Because she's missing. I overheard her mother talking to the Li sisters about her whereabouts. They're also looking for their little brother. Perhaps they've eloped?" The little guardian chuckled.

She closed her eyes, remembering. "I had a funny dream of sorts last night. I was flying."

Spinel chuckled again. "Flying dreams are one of the most common types. Along with falling, and _loving."_

I had wings, pretty ones, like made of lilac silk but they glowed. I've worked with fabrics long enough to know it wasn't just any kind of silk."

"Winged freedom that you lost to bring you here? How disappointing."

"I don't know where I was going, but it wasn't here. But I dreamt I passed her by. I was sleep-flying? I opened my eyes briefly and I saw her, Meiling in red wings that glowed as bright as mine." Tomoyo's hands were clasped together in front of her, as they were in the dream-flight. "She turned to me but she didn't see me, only through me, and went off to her own way."

When her mind returned to the present, barefoot in her friend's land, the sun guardian was on her lap again. He gazed at her with a proper cat's curiosity. "You're a pretty good catch, Ms. Daidouji. Anthropomorphism is wasted on Ruby Moon and Yue. If they had half my wit, they would be after you. Moon boy's pining over century-old unrequited love and my sister is a narcissistic lunatic."

"That's just too bad you're short on thumbs and bipedalism. I'm a sucker for green eyes," Tomoyo said.

"I've heard," Spinel Sun said and smiled. "That one is most oblivious to you."

"She cares for everyone too much to see it. My happiness is from seeing her happy."

"My dear, you are too good to be spending your life chasing after the wrong butterfly. Every cat knows when to cut his losses."

"I'm not a cat."

"How unfortunate."

She laughed. "If you keep this up, I'm going to have to tell my boyfriend Kero. He's the jealous type."

"Please do. It would make my life more interesting. I look forward to reading the scathing letter he'd write about our indiscretions."

"It's just too bad neither of you could take a lady like me out for a proper dinner and movie date." Tomoyo winked. She collected dark hair, soft-looking and glossy in the sun, in an elastic tie she removed from her wrist. No dream flight ruined the perfect ebony-black waves.

"I prefer a good book to company." The deadpanned comment, although honest, left room for unintended offense.

He sprawled on the grass, fuzzy belly exposed and playful. A real cat would only display such vulnerability in the presence of a trusted individual or animal. She had learned this in an animal biology course, and thought this was Spinel's cutesy version of an apology. Kero's behavior was more explicit and rarely involved using a textbook to decipher. What he said without much tact, he meant one-hundred-percent.

"The longer I live with Ruby Moon, the more her barbaric mannerism rubs off. I forget how real humans are expected to behave and speak to one another.."

"Hmm…" She laughed. "You're lucky I'm an animal person, magical and non."

Tomoyo started for the house. Meiling's mother would remember her from last summer's visit. Sure she would question her presence and apparel, but Tomoyo had a talent for talking her way around the most bizarre situations. "My mother's helicopter won't be here until morning the earliest. Better make the most of our visit today and get some rest, since, we've been flying all night. Suppi-chan, don't get any crazy thoughts and I'll let you have a whole pillow next to me."

"No promises." He did not bother correcting the misnomer.


End file.
